Supermarket giant Coles has confirmed that 400 jobs will be axed from their Melbourne head office.

The changes will see 378 permanent staff and 60 contractor positions at the Store Support Centre in Tooronga, go and 160 people will be redeployed within the business.

Coles says it is working to make their workforce 'leaner' but is still investing $1.1 billion in 70 new stores across Australia, creating more than 8000 retail jobs and around 8000 construction jobs.

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Supermarket giant Coles has confirmed 400 jobs will be axed from their Melbourne Store Support Centre

The decision to axe the workers has been slammed by Australian Services Representative Ingrid Stitt who told ABC that workers had been 'left in limbo' over the announcement

She said: 'It's a significant number of jobs that will be lost and worrying.

'We obviously want to know what steps are going to be taken to try to find alternative employment for people and what training opportunities might exist for some of the workers that have been impacted.'

'You really do have to question where our kids and our grandkids are going to be working in the future,' she added.

Ingrid Stitt (far left) says the news about the job losses is 'worrying'

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has denied redundancies are a blow to the federal government's election promise to create millions of jobs.

He said any job losses were disappointing but remained philosophical.

'At any one point in time, new jobs are created and some jobs disappear,' he said on Wednesday.

'The key is to ensure that more jobs are created than disappear.'

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said any job losses were 'disappointing'

Coles Managing Director John Durkan said in a statement: 'To be a world class retailer, Coles needs to invest further in new stores, in renewing existing stores and in better service and value for our customers,' Coles Managing Director John Durkan said in a statement:

'Coles is absolutely focused on better supporting our stores and more than 99,000 team members so they can deliver what our customers want.'

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The changes announced in the Store Support Centre will simplify systems and processes, allowing for a more efficient and productive organisation to support more than 2200 supermarkets, Coles Express and Liquor outlets across Australia, Mr Durkan explained.

He said the changes will not result in any jobs being sent offshore.

He added: 'The team members affected by this decision have made a significant contribution to Coles and we sincerely thank them for their hard work.'

Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews told ABC the planned job cuts were 'very sad news for those 600 families' and more bad news for the state, which has an unemployment rate of seven per cent.